The upcoming trip to Germany has Dirk Nowitzki so fired up that he can’t wait for one particular moment of the journey that will have him and the Mavericks playing in his home country for the first time.

But his anticipation has nothing to do with basketball or his return to his homeland.

“I’ll get some tickets to ‘el Clasico’ on Sunday night, and it’ll be great,” he said.

“El Clasico,” for those of you not well-versed in soccer, is the twice-yearly extravaganza between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid on Sunday night, Oct. 7. That will be the day the Mavericks arrive in Barcelona.

In other words, he’ll be done with his time in Berlin.

Not that Nowitzki isn’t looking forward to his time in Germany. Who doesn’t like going home, right?

But those three days in Berlin won’t exactly be like a holiday for Nowitzki and his teammates.

“It’s going to be a circus for me; I already know that,” Nowitzki said. “I’ve seen the itinerary, and we have stuff going on all the time. It’s going to be a busy couple of days. But I’m looking forward to it.”

The Mavericks’ trip to Europe came about only after many years of, as owner Mark Cuban might say, dodging that bullet. The NBA has wanted to put Nowitzki and the Mavericks on display in Germany for more than a decade.

But the Mavericks thought that the fact that they were always in contention for a championship meant that they needed a training camp regimen that would not be interrupted by a week or more abroad.

“I’ve been telling Cubes basically since we started these overseas trips that we needed to go,” Nowitzki said. “And he never really wanted to do it. This year, they forced him. And we’re glad. It should be great.

“The guys are going to see Germany a little. Berlin is a fun city, and Barcelona is one of the best cities in Europe. Obviously, for a week it’s a little tough. You get over there, you’re jet-lagged, you got to play twice and you have events and stuff like that. It’s going to be a little hectic, but it’s going to be a great experience.”

Some of the Mavericks have never been overseas.

And all of them will be treated like royalty when they arrive in Nowitzki’s home country. They will take an overnight flight to Germany that will leave Wednesday afternoon and land Thursday morning.

From the moment Nowitzki touches down until he departs on Sunday, his time will be spoken for in his homeland. Appearances, NBA-sanctioned events and, oh yeah, the occasional practice, will leave precious little time for visiting with family and friends, although a lot of them will be on hand for the festivities.

“I think I got to get 100 tickets,” Nowitzki said. “That’s not bad for having never played in Germany. I told the NBA, for all the [stuff] I’ve been doing for them for 14 years, they better hook me up with a bunch of tickets. We’ll see how much they can come up with.

“I heard the game was sold out in 30, 45 minutes. So it’s going to be something special.”

What Nowitzki, 34, doesn’t want to happen as he enters his 15th season with the Mavericks, is have the European trip become a distraction to the bigger issue of getting this team in shape to compete in the cutthroat Western Conference.

He’s seen the championship team of 2011 dismantled to the point where he and Shawn Marion are the only players left who actually were on the court during the NBA Finals that season.

“Winning the championship that year, it was kind of tough to bring the boys back,” he said. “We had a bunch of guys who were free agents. We decided to keep our salary cap open for the first time in my career here.

“Unfortunately last year, we had some big fish available and we didn’t get them. So you can do one of two things. Either blow the whole thing up and start over or keep signing guys to short contracts to stay a player in the free agent market the following year. That’s the route we took.

“And I still think for that, we have a heck of a team for saying we still want to be a player for next summer and still put a decent product out there.”

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